


Tethered and Returning

by Meatball42



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Curses, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Gen Work, Ghosts, Human Experimentation, Magic, Major Character Undeath, Midnight, Night, Psychic Abilities, Shadows and Reflections, Spirit Animals, Wandering Spirit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-15 21:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16071299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: Danny calls the remaining Defenders together to answer a question outside their usual spiritual repertoire.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alchemise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemise/gifts).



There was a dragon waiting for Jess when she woke up.

Anything else (anybody else? Whatever) watching her sleep would have elicited an immediate soul-shattering punch to the face. Jess had tried punching this dragon before, though, and instead of breaking into pieces and fading into the air or universal fabric or whatever like other spirits did, this dragon just rolled with it. Literally. Her fist impacted it and it slowly rolled away like some sort of mystical golden air-jellyfish.

Needless to say, when she realized it was there, Jess dragged her pillow back over her head and tried to go back to sleep.

 

 

Luke was already at work when the dragon came for him. Luckily, he was folding a load of towels in the back of Pop’s shop, so nobody else saw. He quickly closed the door to the shop, so no one walked in and saw it, before turning to the spirit.

“Hey Shou Lao,” he greeted it cautiously. “What’s up?”

Danny’s symbiote spirit floated through the air in a spiral around him. Luke watched it carefully. He hadn’t spent a lot of time with the pair of them, but with the way the experiment had affected his soul, he was more sensitive than the average human to the nuances of spirits. Shou Lao wasn’t spinning playfully, but neither was he demanding Luke’s attention.

The dragon coughed, and a small roll of parchment dropped to the floor amidst a spurt of flame.

_Meet in Hell’s Kitchen at midnight. You know where. - Iron Fist_

Luke ground his teeth at the presumptuousness, but gave up and rolled his eyes. It was just Danny.

 

 

The former law office had been cleared out months prior. Jess could see where someone had been visiting, though- footsteps in the dust on the floor. And, more obviously, Danny Rand sitting on an overturned bucket in the middle of the southernmost room.

“Where’s the fire?” she asked.

Danny turned around slowly, like he’d been expecting her. Jess tried not to find it super-annoying; failed.

“Can you feel it?”

“I’m not into your third-eye bullshit, just tell me why I’m here.”

The front door creaked, and Luke’s heavy tread entered the office. He stepped into the room with them and stood a few feet away from Jess. They exchanged a look- awkwardness softened by a mutual unwillingness to put up with this mumbo-jumbo.

“What’s going on here, Danny?” Luke asked. “Why are we here? Why midnight?”

Something moved behind Jess. She flinched to the side, fists already up, eyes wide to catch any glint of ghostly ecto-whatever or spirit-fire. But there was nothing to see- just that feeling that they weren’t alone.

Danny and Luke were staring at the empty space, too.

“What is it?” Jess demanded.

“I don’t know,” Danny admitted, eyes wide. “It’s not… it doesn’t act like a ghost. I can’t summon it or talk to it, and Shou Lao can’t kill it. But it’s not reacting to anything that a spirit would.”

“It’s in Murdock’s office,” Luke pointed out, more willing than Jess or Danny to speak about the elephant in the room. “Maybe it’s one of his… things?”

“Murdock summoned spiritual echoes, not spirits.” Danny shook his head. “The trapped energy should have faded away when he died. I only started sensing this two days ago.”

Luke shivered, drawing Jess’s immediate attention. Through his muscles tensed, he didn’t move away from whatever he was feeling. After a moment, he relaxed slowly.

“It feels familiar,” he told them. “But I don’t know what it is.”

“Familiar like you’ve fought it before?” Jess asked.

“I don’t go looking for mystical being to fight like the two of you,” Luke said, shaking his head. “I couldn’t tell the difference between a ghost and a- wait!”

He stared at Danny, mouth dropped open, and Danny stared back looking just as surprised. “What is it?” Jess stepped over to Luke quickly, and when she looked in the same direction…

A figure stood in the middle of the room, hands raised in the classic ‘no harm’ pose. It was visible only where they looked through its faint outline to Danny.

“What the hell?” Jess whispered.

“You seeing what I’m seeing?” Luke asked.

Danny stepped forward slowly, reaching out his hand, which started to glow. The nearly-invisible figure shuddered, but remained still.

When Danny’s fingers reached it, the Iron Fist’s golden magic seemed to spread into its form. Where it traveled, the figure grew more solid, until before them stood…

“Murdock.”

Still vaguely translucent, Matt Murdock tilted his head in Luke’s direction. “Hey Luke.”

“What are you?” Jess said bluntly. “Are you cursed? Do we need to move you along?” She clenched her fists, but didn’t raise them in Matt’s direction. For some reason, it felt wrong, despite the dozens of ghosts Jess had sent their merry way in the past- sometimes with their blessing.

“I’m not- a ghost,” Matt said, in that halting way he had. It was so typical that for a second, Jess froze, realizing that the figure could have been a boggart copying Matt’s form in order to eat them all. But even as she realized their mistake, she knew that it was really him. 

“I don’t know what I am,” he continued after a pause. “I think… I think I’m alive.”

“Sorry to say this buddy, but you don’t look that alive,” Luke told him.

Matt turned around to face Danny. “Can you feel anything?”

Eyes closed, Fist glowing brighter, Danny’s brow furrowed as he concentrated. Beads of sweat grew on his face, and they all stayed quiet. Eventually, he let go, Fist fading, and frowned deeply. “That way,” he said, pointing downtown. “But too far for me to get a good hold on it.”

“But- I’m there?” Matt asked hopefully.

Jess huffed in disbelief. “There’s no way you survived,” she said, but her doubt was clear toward the end. Luke raised an eyebrow at her.

“I think he is alive,” Danny said “I don’t know how, but. I think this is a reflection.”

“Like a magic mirror?”

“No, like- like his spirit couldn’t get into his body, so it ended up somewhere else it belonged. But not completely. He’s stuck in between.”

“So we have to find his body, and shove him back in it,” Jess summed up.

“But why couldn’t he get back in? Maybe it’s better that he not be there right now,” Luke pointed out.

“Why would you not want to be in your own body?” Jess retorted.

“Spells, curses, malignant spirits, the wrong balance of elements, an extreme amount of pain,” Danny listed.

“I did have a building drop on me,” Matt said dryly.

“Do you remember?”

Matt hesitated. “I don’t know. I’m not going to try.”

They all stood in silence for a moment.

“So we have to find his body, figure out what’s wrong with it, possibly steal it, then find a way to shove it back in,” Jess summed up again. “And before Saturday.”

“What’s on Saturday?” Luke asked.

“It’s not important.”

“More important than this?” Danny said, crossing his arms in disapproval.

“I have this bullshit… anger management thing,” Jess muttered to the floor.

When she looked up, all three men were stifling smiles. She gave them all her best scowl.

“Thank you,” Matt said, sickeningly sincere. “I know you all have your own lives. I really appreciate that you’re willing to help me.”

“You died to protect us,” Danny said quietly.

“And all of New York,” Luke agreed.

“You’re alright,” Jess finished with a shrug. “Might as well keep you around.”

Matt smiled. “Guess we’ve got some work to do.”


	2. Chapter 2

They were already assembled, so they headed south. Luke drove Danny’s car in an unspoken agreement, because Danny didn’t actually have a licence and neither of them wanted to see what Jess was like driving. Danny sat in the passenger seat, muttering to Shou Lao in his Fist and telling Luke which turns to take.

“Can’t you just send it around by itself?” Jess asked, cutting the Fist a dirty look.

“I can't just have an ancient dragon spirit fly around Manhattan where anyone could see,” Danny retorted.

Jess raised an eyebrow. “You used him as a messenger this morning.”

Danny scowled. “Whatever.”

In the seat beside Jess, she thought she saw the fading image of Matt stifle a snicker into his hand.

They parked and walked a few blocks, not wanting to drive too close in case Matt’s body was being held by the Hand, or someone else who wouldn’t be happy to be interrupted. Danny stopped at an intersection and peeked around the corner, then started muttering to his Fist. Matt stood beside him, his body seeming more solid where Shou Lao’s light fell on him.

This far down in Manhattan, all the streets were either wide for shipping trucks, or cramped and unevenly paved in the residential areas. In the moonlight, the tiny streets they were walking through looked especially creepy and malevolent. Jess reached out to poke a sickly, city-planted tree, in case it actually was haunted.

She caught Luke watching her with amusement. “You got something to say?”

He shook his head, glancing around at the scenery. “I feel it too. But it’s not spirits. It’s just poverty.”

“You can sense poverty?” Jess asked partly out of skepticism and partly from curiosity. They’d talked about their abilities back when they first met, but Luke hadn’t mentioned anything like this.

He wiggled his hand in a so-so gesture. “I can sense the echoes. A lot of people around here have felt desperate. Afraid. Hungry. Angry. I’ve gotten real used to interpreting that flavor.”

Jess considered. “So, poor, but not evil?”

“Well, that direction?” Luke pointed the same way Danny was looking. “There’s definitely something fishy going on over there. Darkness, greed. Bad magic. And the fear in this neighborhood… there’s the old stuff, that tastes the way I expect it to. But the new stuff is way too sharp. The people here are afraid of something in particular. Terrified, even.”

Jessica drawled, “Nobody likes the new neighbors, huh?”

Danny and Matt came over to the sad tree. “We’re in the right place,” Danny announced. “The building on the end, it looks like an old firehouse. But your body is inside,” he said to Matt, “and there’s some serious emanations coming off it. They’re coming from one of the spirit worlds, or maybe even another dimension.”

“How could that be?” Matt asked.

"A portal, a being, a really strong spell, or an artifact.” Danny looked around at their small circle. “We need more information. I’ll head in-”

"They won’t see me-”

Danny and Matt stopped talking and stared at each other.

“I’m a ghost,” Matt pointed out. “They literally can’t see me.”

“I have the Iron Fist,” Danny countered.

“Sneaking into places is my job,” Jess interjected.

They all looked at Luke. “What, I don’t break into places or run over rooftops.”

“I don’t think you should get too close to your body until we know more about what’s going on,” Danny said to Matt. “What if you get drawn back into it?” He turned at Jess. “And you might be sneakier than me, but Shou Lao has millenia of experience with this kind of thing.”

“Okay, fine,” Jess said, pulling out her cell phone. Matt nodded begrudgingly.

Danny stared for a moment, surprised to have won the argument so easily, then walked out into the street toward the firehouse.

Luke sighed. “Somebody really has to teach him about subtlety.”

“He’s all yours,” Jess commented under her breath.

“Do you think we’ll end up working together again?” Matt asked. He was barely visible without Danny there, but the moon gave him a faint shimmer. “This- my being outside of my body- is outside of the norm. And last time, with the Hand; something on that scale is hardly going to happen again.”

“I hope not,” Luke replied.

At the same time, Jess pointed out, nose still in her phone, “That’s what they said about the Incident.”

That killed the conversation until Danny came back.

“We’re definitely in the right place,” he told them, cheeks a bit red from exertion. “There’s a ritual fire, incense, a coven. There’s a haze over the room, so I couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but it’s definitely a dark ritual. Your body,” he said awkwardly to Matt, “it’s in the middle of of the circle.”

“I summon up the echoes of spirits around me to use their strength. If they’re using my body as a source or focus for the ritual,” Matt reasoned, showing no discomfort with the topic of conversation, “they’re either trying to summon back the dead, or harness a huge amount of energy.”

“Is this the Hand?” Luke frowned. “They could be trying to bring back their leaders who were killed at Midland Circle.”

“It’s not the Hand,” Jess announced. She looked up from her phone as the others turned to her in surprise. “You may have experience with the mystical crap,” she said snidely to Danny, “but I know building records. The Hand works with shell companies. They cover up all their illegal dealings with above-board covers. That place-” she gestured toward the firehouse, “-it’s a blank spot. It was bought by a charity that went under. Technically, it belongs to the city, but it could be years before anybody notices. These people are trying to leave no evidence they were ever here.”

“What kind of charity?” Matt asked, taking a look at her phone.

Jess pointed to a line on the screen. “This Catholic thing.”

Matt went so still he practically disappeared. “I know who this is. We have to stop them.” He slipped between Luke and Danny, barely visible as he crossed the street.

“They have protections,” Danny hissed after him.

“Against us?” Jess challenged, cracking her knuckles. She let the- the whatever it was inside her, the power that let her punch ghosts beyond the living plane- surge to the surface.

Luke stepped back in surprise, then rolled his shoulders and turned to lead the way after Matt. “I’m guessing not.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've never posted a WIP before that wasn't already complete, so this is new ground! Please let me know if you read this chapter and enjoy it, because I am highly likely to forget this exists for half a year if not reminded. Repeat of the warning that this is going to have some magic-induced dubcon, so readers beware.


End file.
